5 bike trails near major cities

TUCSON, ARIZONA Tucson has a robust cycling scene, offering seriously sporty types desert mountain biking, road rides up Mount Lemmon (elevation 9,100 feet) in the Santa Catalina Mountains,

and bucket-list events such as the 100-mile Tour de Tucson — held annually in November. But it also has plenty of options for more casual cyclists, says Kylie Walzak, director of open

streets for Living Streets Alliance, which runs Cyclovia Tucson, a biannual event that welcomes more than 80,000 participants to walk or cycle the city. One of the best, according to Walzak:

the Pima County Loop, a 130-mile car-free multiuse path. Officially named the Chuck Huckelberry Loop, the route, which encompasses several riverside spurs, is open to bikes, skates and

horses as well as pedestrian traffic. Walzak also recommends making a loop of several broad roads in the Tucson Mountains edging Saguaro National Park west of town: Silverbell Road to

Sweetwater Drive to Camino de Oeste to Anklam Road. “It's just shy of 20 miles with decent, soft climbs,” she says. “It's enough for a great workout — and fast enough to get it in

before my kiddo wakes up in the morning." Pat & Chuck Blackley / Alamy Stock Photo WASHINGTON "There are so many great rides in D.C., and we have an amazing trail network,”

says Jeff Miller, who plans and guides rides in and around the nation's capital as the DC Cycling Concierge. The city is at the heart of a regional bike lane and trail project, known as

the National Capital Trail Network, poised to grow from its current 640 miles to 1,400 miles across Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. One of the best protected (car-free) bike routes,

 the towpath along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal starts in Georgetown and runs northwest for nearly 185 miles to Cumberland, Maryland, where it connects to the Great Allegheny Passage

continuing to Pittsburgh. With multiple access points and a gravel surface, the path makes “a wonderful tunnel through the trees and a quick escape from the urban landscape,” Miller notes.

It's easy to access the trail at various points in Washington and Maryland, and you can choose among many short segments for different kinds of rides. There's also the Mount Vernon

Trail, a paved-surface path that takes you from Theodore Roosevelt Island near Rosslyn, Virginia (just over the bridge from Washington), 18 miles along the Potomac River to George

Washington's Estate at Mount Vernon. Park closer to Mount Vernon, in historic Old Town Alexandria, perhaps, to shorten the ride to about an hour.